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Bernard Slaybeck
Bernard Slaybeck was an automobile safety specialist for Dandy Lion Worldwide Industries who discovered, prior to its launch, that the Dandy Lion SX would explode if it driven more than 70 MPH with the headlights on and the seat warmer set to low. Slaybeck was killed by company president Mark Chase, who attempted to cover up the murder and the defect. Bernard was brought back to life by Ned, Charlotte "Chuck" Charles and Emerson Cod, and provided them with information that eventually led them to discover the cover-up and bring Chase to justice. Bernard also asked that they tell his girlfriend, Jeanine, that he loved her. Biography Career and meeting Jeanine As an automobile safety specialist, Bernard Slaybeck was part of a team responsible for testing the structural integrity, engineering and impact-initiated safety systems of the Dandy Lion SX, an eagerly awaited futuristic and eco-friendly car that ran on fuel derived from dandelion weed. He was 35 years old in the days leading up to the scheduled release of the car and, although he occupied himself with his hobby of catching and releasing butterflies, he was unmarried and lonely. Dummy One day Bernard decided to take a long lunch and watch a sales training seminar. There he met Jeanine, one of the flower girl models for the promotions department, and the two fell in love with each other at first sight. The two began dating and, on at least one occasion, made love in the display car at the Dandy Lion Worldwide Industries headquarters, but they kept their relationship a secret from their fellow employees. Dummy Defect discovery and death As the launch of the Dandy Lion SX grew closer, Bernard started working later and later hours. Then, shortly before the scheduled release date, Bernard discovered a fatal problem with the car, and informed Mark Chase that if it were driven more than 70 MPH with the headlights on and the sear warmer set to low, the short circuit in radio would cause a cataclysmic chain reaction that would blow up the car and the people inside it. Dummy At first, Slaybeck kept the flaw a secret and worked to repair it. On orders from Chase, he would drive the crash test dummies to a ditch and dump them to conceal the test data recorded by their computer hard drives. Jeanine, believing Bernard to be cheating on her during his supposed long hours at work, followed him during one of these trips. She confronted him about what he was doing, but he refused to tell her anything. Dummy When the problem with the car persisted, Bernard insisted that Chase delay the launch date of the car. But Chase said it would be cheaper to release the unsafe car than to delay the launch, and instead tried to bribe Bernard. When Bernard refused the bribe and told Chase he intended to go public with the information, Chase donned one of the outfits from his crash test dummies and shot Bernard with a stun gun, then placed his unconscious body into a Dandy Lion SX test car and rammed it against the wall, killing Bernard. According to the Narrator, Bernard was 35 years, 10 weeks, 7 hours and 3 minutes old at the time of his death. It was his murder that gave Chase the idea to replace the crash test dummies, which could electronically collect data, with dead bodies, thus concealing the evidence of the car's fatal defect. Dummy Resurrection by Ned Chase took the body to the street and created the appearance that he had been killed in a hit-and-run automobile accident. The authorities believed this to be the truth, and as there were no witnesses to the crime, they offered a reward for information leading to the arrest of the killers. This captured the attention of Emerson Cod, who brought the case to Ned. The two men, along with Chuck, visited the morgue, where the coroner let them visit the body after they claimed they were from the "government safety place." Dummy Bernard, who still had fresh tire marks on his face, was brought back to life by Ned. Unable to see well due to his flattened eyeballs, Bernard was confused by what he believed to be the afterlife, although it did not fit in with his Buddhist learnings. He briefly believed the morgue to be heaven, and Emerson Cod to be God. He asked Chuck to deliver a message "to Earth" and tell Jeanine that he loved her, and told Ned that he was "killed by a crash test dummy" before he was restored to death by a second touch from Ned. Dummy Unbeknownst to him, the information that Bernard provided the trio would eventually lead them to discover the truth about his murder and the Dandy Lion SX, and would result in closing of the company, the discontinuation of the car and a life in prison sentence for Mark Chase. Dummy Personality and traits Bernard Slaybeck, an unmarried Buddhist, was an extremely kind man, as demonstrated by the fact that he always released butterflies when he collected them as a hobby. He was also very lonely before he met Jeanine. He further proved himself noble and freed of greed when he rejected a bribe from Mark Chase to keep the Dandy Lion SX defect a secret, opting instead to attempt to tell the truth for the protection of the millions that might have been affected by it. Behind the scenes In the original ABC press release, Bernard's last name was spelled "Slaybaugh," but in the subtitles that appear on screen when Patrick Fabian and Anna Friel speak in Japanese, it is spelled "Slaybeck." Sources Slaybeck Slaybeck Slaybeck Slaybeck Category:Male Category:Season 1 characters